Scars
by MsMusicLover
Summary: Even with their fast healing ability, scars can still be left on a Conduit when the wound is severe enough, there for everyone to see. But what about the scars on the inside? The ones that people cannot see...? (Warnings on the inside; image by elmroko on Tumblr). Part I of the 'Specters and Phantoms' series.


Disclaimer: I do not own inFAMOUS: Second Son

Pairing: Delgene (with background Delgenetch)

Words: 3,621

Rating: M

_**Warnings**_: self-depreciative thoughts, _non-_sexual nudity, mentions of past trauma, mentions of past abusive relationships.

Summary: Prompt by **buddahthebob** on **Tumblr**: If you're still taking delgenetch prompts, it'd be cool to see physical fluff that focuses on your headcanon of conduits having scars.

-This has turned into a prequel of a Halloween Second Son fic I'm going to be writing soon. :)

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><p><span>Scars<span>

Delsin had always been a confident person, ever since he was a kid. Always sure of himself, not self conscious of anything really, and that seemed to carry into adulthood. He took day by day in stride, easy grin on his face and faults and scars without any second thought. It was his best and worst quality, as Reggie used to tell him. _"You sureness often inspires people, Del, but sometimes that same confidence of yours turns into annoying stubbornness," _he would say. He tried not to think too much on Reggie…

It was not until recently that Delsin became hyper aware of himself. It had happened one morning in the bathroom of his apartment after he had taken a shower. He stood in front of the foggy full-length mirror—which had been left by the previous owner of the apartment—looking at his boxer-clad form. The mirror reflected his tall, tan form and unruly black hair, nothing out of the ordinary. But, it also reflected the small, thin dark scars that peppered his form—familiar, from years and years of physical activity, stupid accidents, and roughhousing—and much larger recent scars, ones that were jagged and long that crisscrossed his torso and sides and that warped parts of his legs. He ghosted his fingers over the semi-round but jagged pale half-dollar sized scars that now decorated his shins. Frowning, he pulled them away as he grimaced at the ugly markings on his legs.

He hated looking at them, and they made their presence known every day.

Even though Conduits were incredibly fast healers, wounds that were severe enough would still scar over. The jagged and rough giant shards of concrete that had pierced right through his legs like butter had been certainly severe enough to leave scars. They even ached from time to time when the weather was bad, which was almost every other day thanks to Seattle's regularly rainy weather. The ones on his torso and sides came from the fights and battles he got into (and still gets into occasionally) with the D.U.P. Their bullets freaking hurt because they were laced with the same gas-chemical that prevented Conduits from using their powers, thus preventing accelerated healing. There were also long pale ones that cut into his upper and inner thighs, uneven from past stitches that were used to close the wounds that they once were. These were the worst ones on his whole body (the ones made by Augustine coming in second), and he tried not to be sick. These terribly hideous ones brought bad memories he rather not think about.

Delsin had to look away from the mirror, no longer able to stand seeing himself—which was happening quite frequently—and questioned why Eugene or Fetch would continue to be with a flawed and marred person like him. She and Eugene would be perfect together. He shook his head, putting on his jeans and extremely comfortable black hoodie; he didn't feel like putting on a shirt under his hoodie. The sooner he put his clothes on, the faster the scars would disappear from his sight.

He walked out of the steam-filled bathroom just in time to see Eugene stepping though the apartment door, keys jangling in his hand. "Hey, Delsin!" the blonde greeted with a wide grin as he shut the door, locking it behind him. His boyfriend looked handsome as usual, wearing a cerulean-blue zip-hoodie that Delisn had bought for him for his birthday and his regular green cargo pants. Again, handsome as ever. "Hey, Stud," Delsin smirked back at the shorter man, pressing a kiss on his forehead, prompting Eugene to wrap his arms around his shoulders.

"You smell nice," Eugene said as he rested his head on Delsin's shoulder, running his fingers through the damp, long hair—Delsin didn't feel like getting a hair cut as his now slightly-past-shoulder-length hair was starting to grow on him, no pun intended.

Delsin breathed an airy laugh as he shuffled toward the little kitchenette, with Eugene still attached to him like a cute blonde koala. "Thanks. Flirty today, huh?"

Eugene blushed and detached himself, quickly opening the fridge door to get something to drink. "Sh-shut up…" he was hiding his face in the fridge. It made Delsin smile fondly as he leaned against the counter and stuck his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans. The extremely insecure, flighty, and nervous Eugene that Delsin had met over a month ago had grown into a more confident, though still slightly fidgety man that Delsin had grown to love more than he had ever loved anyone else before (besides family, but that was different because familial love was different from romantic love). He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt something pelt him under his eye.

"Ow!" he shouted more in surprise than actual pain. "The hell?" He turned his gaze to Eugene who was holding an uncapped bottle of water, giggling at him.

"Did you just flick a bottle cap at me?" he said as he raised an eyebrow. "I am _so_ offended," he said as he feigned hurt and put a hand over his heart.

Eugene rolled his eyes and grabbed his hand. "C'mon, dork. We have a whole Star Wars marathon to get through and no time to waste daydreaming." They sat on the comfy couch and Eugene flicked through Delsin's Netflix account, looking for the first movie. The black-haired man made himself comfortable, leaning against the blonde and resting his head on his shoulder, pressing a kiss on his pale cheek. "I may be a dork, but I'm your dork."

A snort. "Such a ham."

"Nerd," Delsin said back lovingly.

"That's Nerd Lord to you."

* * *

><p>The two Conduits made it through the first movie and half of <em>The Empire Strikes Back<em> before they started making out. Delsin had instigated it by nosing Eugene's face and peppering light kissed on his neck, and Eugene reciprocated kindly. The shorter male dipped his head and dragged his teeth over this _one_ spot under Delsin's jaw that made him _groan_.

"Love your v-voice, Delsin."

"_Mmm_, love yours more." And Delsin was being honest; Eugene's voice was light and rich, the voice of an angel.

They started to get a bit more touchy and handsy, fingers in hair, lips on necks, hands over muscles—and soon Eugene's hoodie was removed, revealing a Heaven's Hellfire graphic t-shirt. Eugene was running his hands over Delsin's clothed chest and arms, but it wasn't until long, deft gamer fingers started to trail under his black hoodie that he started to become uncomfortable. Even though they had been dating for half a month now, they had never done anything below the belt, mostly sticking to things ranging from light kisses to heavy makeout sessions with lots of touching. They had tried once, but Delsin had feigned extreme tiredness in order not to get frisky. And that was mostly because they were extremely busy and had not time for things like that, which was perfectly okay with Delsin. He couldn't let Eugene see his nasty, ugly scars.

Delsin started to feel cool air against his midriff and he quickly grabbed Eugene's hands. The other blinked in surprise. "D-Delsin? What's wrong?"

"N-nothing!" he stuttered. "Nothing, just…" he trailed off, not knowing what to say.

Eugene frowned a bit, and Delsin knew it was because of his previous stutter. He never stuttered. Concerned, Eugene squeezed Delsin's hands. "Do you not want to do this with me?" God bless Eugene, his sympathetic and loving heart. _Should I tell him…?_

"No! No, Eugene! I really do want to do this with you!" Delsin exclaimed, leaning closer to his boyfriend. He took a deep breath. "I just…I…_gah_!" He blew out an extremely frustrated breath of air. _Dammit, why is it so hard to tell my marvelous and caring boyfriend that he deserves to be with someone that isn't as scarred and flawed like I am, and that he and Fetch would be perfect for one another?_

"It's okay, take your time, Delsin," Eugene smiles, patient as ever. "I'm not going anywhere."

Delsin sighed as he rested his forehead against Eugene's, light and dark hair interweaving. _What did I do to deserve an angel like him?_ Instead of saying anything—since it seemed like he couldn't even get a sentence out of his throat—he instead removed his hands from Eugene's and pulled up the long sleeves of his black hoodie. "You see these?" he asked as he flicked down his eyes to the myriads of light and dark scars that crisscrossed his arms. He had to bring his gaze back up to Eugene's deep blue eyes as he could not stand to look at his own arms any longer. These ones didn't faze him as much as the other ones on his body did, so he was slightly more comfortable in showing these than the other ones.

Ignoring the movie in the background, Eugene responded, "The scars? Yeah, Del, what about them?" Delsin loved when Eugene called him 'Del' as only one other person would call him that, and that person was gone now.

"They're not only on my arms," he said with a lot of hesitance. "I-I have them all over my body, Eugene, and they're, like, ten times worse. You wouldn't want to see them."

Eugene trailed his long gamer fingers over the scars on Delsin's arms, making him shiver slightly. "Delsin," he said in a soft voice as he lifted one of the black-haired male's hands and kissed the scars on his tan skin, "I could care less about your scars. Heck, I wouldn't care if it looked like you were shoved through a paper shredder. I-I mean I would care, 'cuz then you would be terribly hurt, but I mean I wouldn't care about the scars." His words made Delsin's cheeks grow warm, and the room was starting to get even warmer as Eugene's lips made their way from his hand to up his arm.

Delsin's breath stuttered. "E-Eugene…"

"Let me see? Please?"

He nodded his head and slowly peeled off his black hoodie, revealing his bare chest. His heart was beating wildly in his chest at what felt like an alarming rate and he could feel the blood rushing and pounding in his head; he was feeling awfully vulnerable right now, but he trusted Eugene. He swallowed and leaned back against the couch as the blonde Conduit kissed his jaw again and ran his fingers over his chest. He stopped at a long, pale scar that went from the middle of his stomach a few inches over his navel, curved around his ribs, and disappeared behind his back. Patient blue eyes peered into his cinnamon-brown ones in question.

"I was facing against one of the D.U.P. Knights and there was that damn gas everywhere that stopped me from using my powers. A three-foot concrete shard ripped through my sides. My ribs were bruised for, like, two days."

Eugene kissed it. "Beautiful, like you."

More shivers ran up Delsin's spine, but they were pleasant ones. He didn't know how much time had passed, but he ended up explaining all the scars on his upper body: the two round ones on his left pectoral muscle from being shot at by pesky Akurans, the dark scraped-pattern one on his shoulder created from when he slid almost ten feet on the street when he had been knocked out of mid-air, the other long pale one that stretched across his abdomen from when he was seventeen and had gotten into a fight in school with an idiot who was suspended for brining a knife to school, and many smaller ones. At every mark and scar, Eugene always told him they were gorgeous, beautiful, handsome, stunning, breathtaking, and other similar compliments. His face turned red again, and he threw an arm over his eyes in slight embarrassment.

"Cute blush," Eugene laughed.

"Shut up, Stud," Delsin pouted.

Eugene's shirt had been taken off long ago, revealing a lithe, pale upper body that was completely unmarred. He had the figure of a gymnast, perhaps, flexible and lean but still muscled. Delsin leaned up a bit and pressed his lips on Eugene's abdomen, biting lightly. "Hot stuff, Stud," he smirked, prompting a flush on Eugene's own face. Eugene deliberately massaged Delsin's abdomen, running over the dips and rises of his six-pack. "Not as good as yours."

"Still hot stuff, though," came the reassurance.

Even though they were handsy and flirty, it wasn't really that sexual and Delsin found he didn't mind. In his past relationships he could never expose his body like this without it leading to sex, and it was never always pleasant. Here and now, though, he was comfortable in the knowledge that they could bare (most) of their bodies and just take each other in without it becoming sexual. But even with that knowledge in mind, when the now pantsless Eugene—who had shucked his cargo pants somewhere he didn't know a few minutes ago) had dipped is fingers into Delsin's waistband, he couldn't help but feel anxious and nervous. Yeah, Eugene told him that he didn't care about the scars, but the ones on his legs were _so_ much worse! They made the other ones look like miniscule paper cuts. His breathing increased quite a bit and he shut his eyes, willing himself not to become sick.

Sensing his distress, Eugene removed his hands as quick as one of his video attacks and gently cupped Delsin's face, thumbs running over his cheeks. "Am I going too far? We can stop if you want to." Delsin shook his head and opened his eyes, staring deep into Eugene's as if imploring him to understand. "No, I'm…I'm okay, really. It's just…like I said before, the ones on my arms were nothing. My legs look terrible."

The blonde man paused for a moments before gently kissing Delsin lips, thumbs still stroking his cheeks. He then sat up a bit and brushed his hair fringe away from his temples and the crown of his head/hair line. "You're not the only one who has scars, Del." Delsin let out a silent gasp at what he saw. There were small, curved dark and white scars that were clustered around his temples and hair line. They looked dense, like whatever made the scars did so over and over again, making the tissue heal and scar and a cyclical way. _God, what happened to Eugene?_

Delsin raised his fingers and ghosted them over the marks with a touch as light as a feather. Eugene leaned into his touch as if gathering momentary strength from it. They were silent for several long minutes, but there was no rush for anything. Only them. "When…when I was in Curdun Cay," Eugene started, eyes still closed, "Augustine forced me into this chair and plugged wires and nodes into me like I was a computer." He paused to take a breath. "At first it was for experiments, Augustine's way of doing research. It's kind of blurry, trying to remember that period of time, but, whatever." He jerked his shoulders in a shaking shrug, prompting Delsin to rub his shoulders, kneading away some of the tension coiled there. "The last year I was there, she still kept me plugged in, but she made me use my powers to train the new inmates, making me form tactile projections of D.U.P.s, specters, and my Angels and Demons. Eventually I just told her I would do it without resisting. It was just…easier that way."

A few tears slipped from his blonde eyelashes and Delsin was quick to kiss them away. It was obvious to him that this was difficult for Eugene, and that made it even more heartfelt that he would do so. He grit his teeth as he felt a spark of anger heat his blood. _Maybe I shouldn't have let that bitch Augustine go after all._ He snuffed out that idea, knowing that it wouldn't do any good to dwell on it, and instead focused on the here and now, on Eugene who was still straddled above him. He threaded his hands through Eugene's hair and pressed their foreheads together. "Thank you for telling me that, 'Gene, it means a lot. I know that must have been hard to tell me." He smiles. "They're studly, like you."

Eugene opened his eyes and stared into Delsin's. A wry, crooked grin tweaked at his lips. "Dork."

"We've already been through this."

The video Conduit hummed in agreement.

What Eugene had told him just minutes ago somehow made him feel better, like he wasn't the only one who has been hurt by someone else. He…he he could, at least with this. "I think I'm ready to ditch the pants and boxers. I trust you, Eugene, and…I want to see you."

Eugene's grin turned into a full smile. "Thank you, Delsin. I want to see you, too."

They both got up from the couch and stood up, facing one another. Eugene shot him a smile of reassurance and he sent one right back at him. _Nothing is going to happen,_ he had to remind himself as his fingers twitched in nervousness,_ It's going to be okay. It's just me and Eugene here, no one else._

"You okay, Delsin" Eugene asked.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm good. I want to do this."

In any other circumstance, the two of them standing opposite another half naked in only their underwear (plus pants in Delsin's case) while counting to three would have looked utterly ridiculous, something to put on YouTube. But, as their drawers (and pants) dropped, Delsin felt any nervousness disappear only to be left with awe as he looked at the body of his Angel. Pale, like the rest of his body, but studly nonetheless. Lithe and lean, gorgeous. "Holy shit, Eugene, you look amazing." He wasn't exaggerating. The 'v' of his hipbones were slightly prominent, but that just added to the other's appeal.

"Th-thanks, Delsin," he smiled shyly, "I can say the same for you." Delsin watched Eugene's eyes trail down his legs and then up to his thighs, taking in every (ugly) mark on his skin. He looked back to his face. "They don't bother me, not in the slightest."

Hearing those words, a ragged breath that he didn't know he had escaped his chest as he lips twitched in half disbelief and half happiness. He felt his eyes burn and become watery as tears welled up and rivuletted down his cheeks. He couldn't say anything, not even when Eugene took two steps forward and embraced him, laying him on the couch again. _Why the hell won't I stop crying, dammit?!_ He was on his back and Eugene hovered over him, wiping away his tears. He kissed his face, then down his chest to his stomach, his hips, and the marks on his thighs, stopping there. He gave an inquisitive look.

"I'm just gonna say a past relationship. I don't think I can go into detail right now and still remain semi-calm."

"I understand. You can tell me when you're ready, even if it's tomorrow or five years from now. I can wait." Delsin's cheeks felt warm again, but he was flattered that Eugene would want to be with him even five years from now. His past two relationships were very short. In the first one, the girl had just wanted to sleep with him, and of course he didn't find that out until it was too late. She got what she wanted and dumped him like he was yesterday's old garbage, moving on to the next guy. His second and last relationship (before Eugene) had ended extremely bad—like crash and burn kind of bad—and that was the relationship where he had gotten the scars on his thighs.

He didn't like to think about it.

Delsin clasped Eugene's hand and squeezed, giving him a silent 'thank you'. Eugene squeezed back.

The blonde continued exploring his legs until he made it to the raised, dense scar tissue that was concentrated on his shins. These were the slightly round, but still ragged scars that were created by the concrete shards spearing through his legs. "Augustine," he explained simply to Eugene, and the other Conduit understood perfectly.

"She's a bitch," Eugene said, plain as day.

"Wow, Stud," Delsin blinked, "I'm surprised, you barely curse."

Eugene frowned, brows slanted downward and teeth peeking through his lips in an almost-snarl. _Holy crap._ Delsin knew from experience that Eugene was scary to be around (if you were his enemy when he was angry. If Delsin's anger was like a lava-hot uncontrollable rage, Eugene was like an arctic storm: deadly, all-consuming, and full of precision, fury escaping no one. "She hurt you, Delsin," he said matter-of-factly. "I don't like that." There was a gleam in his eyes, one that Delsin knew to promise vengeance, again from experience (not to him, but to other people).

"Babe. Babe," Delsin grabbed Eugene's face and guided his gaze from burning holes in the wall to his own brown eyes. "I'm okay, Stud. I'm really happy to have my Angel in shining armor to worry about me." His light tone of voice made the cold gleam melt into the blue of Eugene's eyes and was replaced with a more familiar, warmer look. Eugene rolled his eyes at him, well adapted to Delsin's puns.

"Dork."

"I'm your dork," Delsin smiled and pressed their foreheads together, "and you're my Nerd Lord. I love you, 'Gene."

Eugene closed his eyes and sighed, leaning more into Delsin. "I love you too, Delsin."

And the greatest thing, Delsin thought, was that he fully believed Eugene.

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><p><span>Published<span>: 10/11/14

A/N: This will also be posted on Tumblr and Archive Of Our Own. If you want links to those pages, they are on my Profile Page.

A/N 2: Please drop a review to let me know what you guys think! They'll help me when writing the sequel to this. (Yes, there will be a sequel to this.)


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